An Open Letter Explaining Fatigue Syndromes
Dear relative, colleague or friend,
This letter is intended to give you some idea of what the person who gave this to you to read is going through – and the likely cause(s) of their ‘invisible’ fatigue syndrome illness.
The naturopathic model
Conventional medicine is at a loss to explain illnesses such as chronic fatigue syndrome (C.F.S), myalgic encephalomyelitis (M.E.), fibromyalgia and autoimmune diseases referred to here as fatigue syndromes, however, the naturopathic view is that all illness is due to toxicity or deficiency.
In all probability your friend, colleague or relative is suffering with a form of toxicity and this is likely to involve a large component of chronic mercury poisoning. Whilst we are all exposed to a perplexing array of toxins, mercury is uniquely and potently toxic in humans.
The horse’s mouth
I can state this with some confidence because I had chronic mercury poisoning myself as a result of personal and both occupational and accidental exposure to mercury as a dentist. I managed to recover and retrained as a naturopath where I realised to my dismay that 100% of the sick people I saw tested positive for chronic mercury poisoning (when you knew how to elicit it).
Sources of mercury
Many people have some exposure to mercury through eating some kinds of fish and most will have had vaccination(s) containing a mercury preservative. However, for most people up to 90% of their mercury exposure has been determined by the World Health Organisation to originate from their dental amalgam fillings.
How so?
Dental amalgam is a mixture of approximately half liquid mercury and half powdered silver, copper, tin and zinc. In addition to mercury evaporating from the filling, the different metals are believed to become electrically active emitting plumes of mercury vapour throughout the life of the filling. The Smoking Tooth Video video available to view on the video hub at www.thenaturalrecoveryplan.com (go to Resources > Video > Mercury & Dentistry or available on Youtube) graphically demonstrates this.
Making a bad situation worse
This effect is made worse by the inclusion of other dissimilar metals in the mouth in the form of gold or precious metal crowns, posts or dentures, for example. The universal introduction in the 1970s of so-called high-copper dental amalgam has also been shown to emit over 50 times the mercury vapour of the older formulations of amalgam and may, in large part, account for the sudden and massive growth in ‘mystery’ illnesses such as autoimmunity.
How can that be?
Dental amalgam fiillings have been used for nearly 190 years and were developed long before any safety checks were ever required. There were no immediately apparent problems and so the situation has been allowed to continue. Dental amalgam fillings are also classified as prostheses (along with prescription glasses, for example) and so have never been required undergo the rigorous testing that you might expect and would certainly never pass any safety tests were they introduced today.
Slowly, but surely
Removing or placing a dental amalgam filling has long been recognised to increase blood mercury levels for months afterwards. This was always thought to indicate the time it took to excrete this highly potent toxin. However, this period is now thought to indicate the time it takes for the body to store this poisonous substance rather than excrete it.
No way out
Mercury significantly and rapidly compromises the ability to excrete toxins through the two main routes of excretion – the kidneys (as urine) and the liver (as bile in the faeces). The mercury then accumulates in the body where it compromises all sorts of biochemical pathways including oxygen transport and energy production.
Mercury is stored in the endocrine system (eg: thyroid gland); the muscles and joints (where it causes pain and stiffness) and the digestive and reproductive systems – causing all sorts of mayhem. As mercury accumulates, it is absorbed into the nerves that serve these organs and ultimately tracks inward to end up in the brain and central nervous system.
Why hasn’t the link been noticed?
There are many reasons, but three stand out. First, there may be a considerable delay between any dental treatment and the onset of symptoms. Second, no two people store mercury in quite the same way and so the symptoms masquerade as thousands of seemingly diverse disorders. Finally, there are a lot of professional reputations and a lot of big business money at stake.
The onset of fatigue syndromes
Sometimes, the onset of chronic fatigue syndrome, M.E, fibromyalgia or autoimmune disease can appear to be fairly sudden, for instance, after an infection or vaccination. Frequently, however, the descent into illness is gradual. The first symptoms of chronic mercury poisoning are often feeling non-specifically awful (flu-like symptoms); feeling tearful, unhappy and depressed (for no particular reason); digestive upsets; the need to urinate frequently and a growing insomnia.
The chronic mercury poisoning also adversely affects short-term memory and cognitive function. The affected individual may become clumsy and start to withdraw and feel easily overwhelmed – as though everything is an enormous effort. In both men and women reproductive and hormonal functions are profoundly affected. Since women bind mercury at twice the rate of men, this may account for the greater prevalence of fatigue syndromes in women.
No defence
Chronic mercury poisoning also undermines the immune system to the point where the individual cannot mount an effective response to any microbes they encounter. This means that they frequently have several latent viral and bacterial infections and almost universally have ongoing problems with yeast overgrowth (thrush/’leaky gut’).
The reality of fatigue syndromes
The symptoms of fatigue syndromes fluctuate as the toxins are moved from one body part to another and this is confusing for the sufferer and anyone else involved. Frequently the fatigue syndrome sufferer may have ‘good’ days when they can get quite a lot done followed by unpredictable ‘bad’ days when they may feel dreadful.
Why doctor’s tests are often negative
This is a frequent finding in fatigue syndromes for all sorts of complex reasons. However, in brief: the medical profession are not conducting meaningful tests, because they don’t understand the cause. Also, even if they were to test for circulating toxic metals in general and mercury in particular, the body has often safely ‘stored’ this highly poisonous substance in deep body compartments where it is hard to detect.
The only tests that ultimately might be of value are either provocation tests where chelating agents are taken to draw the toxins out of storage combined with urine or blood analysis – or the unpleasant option of a kidney or brain biopsy that is sent for toxicological analysis.
Recovery IS possible
The good news is that your friend, colleague or family member can recover from this debilitating illness. The bad news is that it is going to take years, require a good deal of determination, cost a substantial amount of money – and they are going to require all the support they can get.
It is truly impossible to make someone understand the nightmarish experience of living with these conditions since it affects the brain and mood it fundamentally attacks the very fibre of what you consider to be ‘self’ in addition to the ever-changing unpleasant physical roster of symptoms.
What you can do to help
The vast majority of partners, friends and family members may speculate about the reality of fatigue syndromes. This is partly because of the doubt cast by the medical profession, who incidentally, termed the earliest cases of multiple sclerosis ‘faker’s disease’! Fatigue syndrome sufferers frequently end up losing their job(s), may be denied benefits or insurance, and may also end up losing their friends and families too.
The most important thing that you can do is believe that the person who gave you this is probably very sick – albeit with an ‘invisible illness’ that conventional medicine cannot detect and does not (yet) recognise and offer to support them in whatever way is possible.
Further resources
If you would like to find out more or have concerns about your own health having read this, please either visit www.thenaturalrecoveryplan.com for more information and/or buy the book Chronic Fatigue, M.E., and Fibromyalgia: The Natural Recovery Plan by Alison Adams. It is important to be fully informed before taking any action because mercury is a potent toxin and you can potentially cause more harm in attempting to remove it than by leaving it in storage.
"Your book has offered me some amazing insights and I am pleased to say that my own healing path has led me down much of the same path you outline, reinforcing that I somehow was fortunate enough to have gone through the mercury detoxification process when I had my amalgam fillings replaced. It must have been dumb luck that I did it right because as fragile as I was, I am not sure I could have survived doing it the wrong way."
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